Thursday, 13 March 2008

when dogs have lumps that scare us

Penny has had a quiet week and so have I. Wednesday of last week she had a lump removed from her chest and the vet said he thought it should be sent for pathology. He was quite reassuring that he was only being extra careful and I tried not to worry, but the terror was lying beneath the surface.

I couldn't bring myself to post a blog about it and I think that was because, deep down, there is a superstition in me that if I put my worst fears into print they might come true. So I just spent time with Penny and hoped... and hoped...

Well, I'm thrilled to say that today the vet rang and said it was just inflamed tissue, probably caused by a foreign object sticking into her at some stage - the thickened tissue had a hole through it but no actual object was in the centre.

Which brings me to the question - when should we leave well enough alone? If Penny were an outside dog, or if we didn't groom her so often, and thus check her, perhaps the swelling would have come and gone and we would not have known. She would not have had painful surgery and a long recovery from the effects of the anaesthetic.

But, the general advice is to check your dog regularly for lumps. It's a difficult juggling act, I guess. And I would do the same again, in the circumstances. Even the vet thought it looked suspicious.

Now we have to deal with a bored dog who is used to being active and isn't allowed to exercise for another week, until the stitches come out. I'll have to re-read some of my own old posts about keeping dogs busy, and visit some of my favorite blogs for advice. I did remember something I read about hunting for food, so I've been hiding chicken necks around the backyard for Penny to find, instead of just serving dinner up. Here she is, having found one in the weedy corner where I hid it:

I'm glad to hear Noah was okay, too. It's a bit of a relief to hear that I'm not the only one who has had this experience because I'm aware that I'm rather inexperienced at living with a dog and I was wondering if I should have waited longer. But, on the other hand, as I said, the vet thought we should examine it. I agree -better safe than sorry.

Oh my, glad to know that it wasn't all that serious. I had big big lumps on me before & it was also due to some foreign objects stuck in me. I always get it when I walk into some long long grass which we call "lalang" here in Malaysia. They are sharp on the edges & can cut our skin. So every time I walked in there, my mommy would find fist size lumps on me. It hurts but it's not serious. Mommy just uses hot egg or stone & rubs around that area till it goes down. Sometimes it takes up to a week or so to go down.

Amber-Mae, that's a new idea to me. Do you mean that your mum boils an egg and then peels it and rubs the warm egg on your skin? If so, do you get to eat it then? Or do you mean it's a boiled egg with the shell still on? Or am I completely mixed up about it?

It's a great relief to hear from you that you have the problem, also. I don't feel so alone with my ignorance since I heard about you and Noah also experiencing this problem.

Parlance, no, the egg shell was not peeled off when being rubbed on me. After boiling the egg, it will become hard-boiled. After that, mommy will just warp a cloth around it & then rub on the swollen part for about 10 min. For the stone, mommy boils it in the pan & will then also warp it with a cloth & then rub on me. Ofcourse after that, I get to eat the egg! BOL!!!